Denver Nuggets – NBA Season Preview
It’s a new world for the Denver Nuggets. This will be the team’s first full season without Carmelo Anthony since the franchise drafted him back in 2003. But that doesn’t mean this team is short on quality talent though.
Odds to win:
Title – 60/1
Conference – 25/1
Division – 5/1
Ty Lawson will be the starting lead guard from the outset this season, and there isn’t a better point guard for the way the Nuggets play in the NBA. It is no secret that the Nuggets like to get up and down the court in a hurry, and who better to run that team than quite possibly the fastest player in the league.
Denver has also agreed to bring back their two key free agents as well. Nene Hilario and Aaron Afflalo are both back in the form of multiyear contracts, and figure to be in the starting lineup yet again.
That leaves two spots in the lineup up for grabs. Danilo Gallinari will get one of those two spots.
The question is how Denver will play it. Will they go big and run Danilo at the three and Harrington at the four, or will they play their usual up and down small ball game and throw Gallinari at the four leaving newcomer Rudy Fernandez to play the three? Any way they choose to play it, this will be an incredibly deep team.
So they are already six players that figure to get a lot of minutes. Then you throw in veterans Chris Andersen and Andre Miller that figure to play prominent roles within this team, and couple those two with rookies Jordan Hamilton and Kenneth Faried. You have the makings of a team that can compete with just about anyone. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The only question mark is whether or not they will be able to play enough defense to get past the better teams in the West.
Nene can block shots, but his post defense does leave a lot to be desired. Lawson is quick, but he’s not exactly known as a great on-ball defender. The two men from across the court in Gallinari and Fernandez aren’t known to be stellar defenders either. Then you have Harrington who hasn’t played any defense since college.
That basically leaves you with two above average defenders on this team. Afflalo and Miller.
Both of these guys can lock down opposing players, but the problem is that both of these two are guards that lack the size to defend most of the marquee players in the league.
If anything is going to hold the Nuggets back this season, it will definitely be the defense. The question is whether or not their incredible scoring pace can cover up that deficiency enough to be a top four team in the West again.
